UK's Dunne urges US to buy more British weapons
UK minister of state for defence procurement Philip Dunne late on Tuesday urged US Defense under secretary Frank Kendall to buy more British weapons.
Dunne commented that there were trade imbalances between both countries.
"Put simply, we buy rather more from you than you buy from us," Dunne said.
The claim came during the minister's first visit to the US, after the country's re-election of a conservative government in March.
The British minister also met with US deputy defence secretary Robert Work, with whom he discussed the co-operative development of the F-35, one of the most advanced stealth fighter jets. Dune said he expected the jets to start being tested in 2018, in order to give them operational use by 2020.
Britain was the world's sixth largest weapons exporters between 2010 and 2014, with the US receiving 12% of those exports, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute reported.
Both countries had previously shared their military concerns, prompting UK Prime Minister David Cameron to announce he would increase spending on defence at 2% of Britain's GDP for the rest of the decade, in a move commended by US President Barack Obama.
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